Invitations and Entertainments
by Damonficgirl
Summary: Post Season 3 - Annie/Auggie stories and scenes - a mix of fluff, drama, humour, and romance - mostly stand alone scenes/stories but this series includes a longer story (from chapters 13-17) in which Auggie disappears. Joan, Eyal and Danielle all make appearances. New Chapter added 17th of January US time.
1. Chapter 1

**1. An Invitation**

Annie raised her fists in front of her face and bounced on her heels, pivoting back and forth, a challenging glint in her eyes as they narrowed on her target. He grinned back at her enjoying the rhythm of her heavy breathing and the scent of her sweat in the air.

"Is that all you've got?" he chided.

"Oh you just wait," she challenged.

"I'm right here, what are you waiting for?" he teased.

Right hook, left jab, block, jab, block, then she hesitated too long and his left sneaked through her defenses, but at the last minute he pulled his punch and it bounced off painlessly.

"You're going easy on me."

"Never."

"You can't do that. I'll get soft."

"I highly doubt that," Auggie remarked gripping the sides of her waist playfully.

"We're meant to be training!" Annie complained, though her face and tone betrayed her happiness.

"What can I say, I've taught you everything I know in this arena…. But there are other arenas."

"Oh there are are there?" Tell me more," Annie challenged as she set up for another punch after first warning him with an open hand that she was repositioning.

"Oh I have skills you've never seen," Auggie smirked playfully.

"Do tell."

"Some things can't really be taught, they have to be experienced."

"Tonight then? 8?"

"I thought you'd never ask."


	2. Chapter 2

**2. Word Games**

**_Note – I should have said before Chapter 1 that this assumes an established (though still fairly new) A/A romance._**

"Scrabble? Really?" It was pouring rain and Annie and Auggie were seated at his coffee table nursing mugs of steaming hot coffee to ward off the cold. Having already spent considerable time that morning pursuing other _indoor activities_, Auggie had suggested a change of pace.

"Scared of losing Walker?"

"Not in your life! I just didn't want to embarrass you," Annie grinned. "Some boys don't like it when girls win."

"Well real men can handle that sort of challenge."

"You know I used to play with Danielle all the time, but I thought it was a little too old school for you."

"You'd be surprised how old school I can be, I have been known to open doors for beautiful ladies, when I can find them."

"Are beautiful ladies so hard to find?"

"Oh they're the easy part, doors can be a bitch," Auggie laughed.

"But you can play Scrabble?" Annie asked, Auggie's talents seemed endless but it did seem like a difficult task.

"Braille tiles," he explained.

"I see. Well you're going to have to bring your A game Anderson."

"I will bring my A game and my Q, K and Z game, more points."

"Very funny," Annie mocked, "That was bad even for you."

"Are you saying my jokes aren't funny?" Auggie pretended to be hurt. "Because I seem to remember a lot of laughter last night."

"I blame the wine."

"I blame the ticklish spot underneath your elbow," Auggie grinned, gently reaching for her arm.

Annie grinned broadly, it wasn't enough to set her off again but it still spread a warm jolt through her. "Come on Auggie this is serious," Annie teased.

"Oh I'm deadly serious. Get ready to be trounced," Auggie warned.


	3. Chapter 3

**3. Rainy Days**

"The fridge is empty, lets walk to that deli around the corner," Annie suggested.

"We can order in, my treat. It'll save getting wet," his tone was off hand but his hand clenched is leg slightly with tension.

"I need to stretch my legs, and it's raining."

"For most people that's a good reason to stay home," he countered.

"I love the smell of the rain. Don't you?"

"I do."

"So, lets go for a walk," Annie wielded like a willful child.

"Can't we just open a window?" there was a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"What's up with you not wanting to go outside? You don't have a lazy bone in your body. I know I've checked them all out, thoroughly," Annie whispered massaging his shoulders from behind.

Auggie grinned knowingly but then his expression soured, "Truth be told, rainy days aren't so great these days."

Annie was going to counter with a crack about him getting old when she sensed there was something more serious going on. "You mean since you lost your sight?" she asked gently.

"It's just it's harder, the rain muffles the sounds from my cane and I end up feeling like an idiot standing in the train looking lost."

"You're the smartest person I know, no one could think you're an idiot."

"I just hate looking like that guy, you know the poor blind guy everyone expects."

"No one who knows you could ever think that about you. And besides, I'll be right beside you."

"I know but it's different. When you guide me at work, no one things anything of it, they all know me, they know who I am and what I can do, in public, I mostly think that when people see us together they must think wow isn't she lucky to have hot blind boyfriend but sometimes, sometimes I know they're really asking themselves, what's that beautiful woman doing with the blind guy?"

"First, you're not 'the blind guy' you're a guy and you're blind and that just makes you more amazing. Secondly, we look kind of fabulous together, if anyone is thinking anything its wow their kids will be beautiful," Annie laughed. "So don't worry so much. But when you do, it's okay to tell me the real reason. You don't have to pretend you're afraid to get wet. So you want to order in? How about Thai?"

"Screw it, let's go to the deli," Auggie announced standing up and holding out his arm to Annie. "You're right, our children _would _be gorgeous."

"And smart. And not at all egotistical or stuck up," Annie teased.

"Never," Auggie agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

**4. Hello, Goodbye, I Love You**

"Honey I'm home," Annie called, a mocking tone in her voice, they weren't exactly living together but she did spend a lot of time at his place and she'd promised she'd come straight from the airport. It had been a crazy couple of weeks since Christmas with one operation after another keeping them busy and worst of all apart.

"Wonderful," Auggie greeted coming out of the bedroom, buttoning his shirt. "I was worried I was going to miss you," he explained giving her a quick kiss and a gentle hug. "Any bruises?" he asked as he took in her scent.

"A few," Annie grimaced, she didn't want to worry him, especially when he couldn't' see the damage for himself, but she appreciated the care he took to avoid sensitive spots given that she regularly came home sporting bruises and injuries. She had to admit that dating within the agency had its perks. "But I'll live," she promised.

"Unfortunately I can't stay, Joan needs me five minutes ago, but I'll hear about your trip tomorrow?"

"Sure, does she need me?" Annie asked as she slipped her arms around his trim waist.

"No get some rest. Joan just has no patience with nerds, except for me of course."

"You're not a nerd," Annie argued, reaching her right hand up to caressing his cheek. She was exhausted but it was great just to see him for a few moments. Auggie leaned into her hand and closed his eyes before turning his head to kiss her wrist. Annie smiled because it tickled a little and because his sweet ministrations had the magic effect of making the most mundane conversations seems special.

"I am, but it's nice of your to argue with me," Auggie answered. "I'm going to remember you said that next time I want to watch the SyFi channel."

"I'll deny everything."

"I have hidden cameras all over this place."

"Sure you do," Annie laughed, half suspicious that he wasn't actually lying about that. An interesting thought occurred to her, "Maybe we'll have to review the tapes sometime," she suggested with a waggle of her eyebrows.

"Now that is just not fair when you know I can't see them, but I'm sure they would sound interesting," Auggie smirked, leaning his forehead against hers.

"Very."

"But I have to go," he admitted reluctantly.

"I have to sleep."

"I love you Walker."

"Love you too," Annie returned, kissing him deeply.

"Tonight?"

"I'm flying to Brussels to follow up on the new intel we recovered," Annie admitted reluctantly. "But it should be a short trip."

Auggie sighed, "Well they do say, absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"Impossible, I'm as fond of you as it gets, but I'm glad you understand." Annie really hoped she was right in thinking she could take him at his word.

"One of perks of dating within the company, or at least this company man anyway. But if Joan wants me to fix her computer she'd better give you Saturday night off," Auggie warned.

"Goodluck," Annie smiled, and she gave him one last quick kiss before pushing him away. "Now get going, or you'll get in trouble," she warned and gave him a slap on the butt to send him on his way.

"You're worse than Joan," Auggie complained groaning but he grabbed his bag and his cane and headed out the door. "There's takeout in the fridge, and I'm pretty sure your dry cleaning is hanging up in the cupboard, either that or the dry cleaner has some explaining to do."

"You're perfect," Annie called over her shoulder as she headed for the bathroom.

"Don't you forget it."


	5. Chapter 5

**Nerves**

"Do we have too?" Auggie whined. He was perched on Annie's bed while occupied herself with the business of getting ready, putting in her earrings, touching up her makeup and so on.

"Yes, Danielle and the kids are only in town for two days and I couldn't see them yesterday, or today. Danielle has been really patient, I can't stand her up on new years eve."

"But I was going to show you that spot I told you about where you can smell the fireworks."

"Next year I promise. Or you could still go and I"ll see Danielle by myself, I'm sure she'd understand."

"No she wouldn't, I've met your sister remember? I have it on good authority she intends to check that my intentions are honourable. I don't think not showing up would be in my interests, unless we both cancel."

"You talked to Danielle?" Anne surmised.

"I answered your phone when you were in the shower yesterday remember."

"And she actually said that? Okay I'm not really that surprised, Danielle can be a little..."

"Mother bearish?"

"Protective." Annie agreed. Then she eyed Auggie suspiciously, "August Anderson, are you afraid of my sister?" Annie asked with a smirk.

"I'm not sure she likes me," Auggie admitted.

"She likes you," Annie reassured.

"Annie..." Auggie began awkwardly, "When you were in the hospital after Lena shot you I spoke to Danielle, she was pretty angry."

Annie looked confused. Then comprehension dawned on her. "she blamed you for me getting shot?"

"Well... Yeah. I mean she was worried, she was pretty angry at the agency too, and I work for the agency. I'm just not sure she's going to be thrilled that we are dating."

"Well you're wrong, she screamed down the phone like a teenager when I told her. She's thrilled, Danielle can be pretty highly strung sometimes but even she knows I wouldn't be any safer dating an accountant. She knows I choose this life, she may not always understand that but she respects it."

"Good," Auggie replied, relaxing slightly.

"Just don't tell her you're a Cubs fan, unless you want to talk about kids."

"Kids?" Auggie asked confused.

"We're pretty keen Washington Nationals fans, we sort of adopted them when we settled in Georgetown, after moving around so much as kids she's pretty passionate about team loyalty. She'll want to know how we are going to raise our kids. Baseball loyalty is more important than religion or politics as far as she's concerned. You may as well belong to a rival gang as far as she's concerned."

Auggie's brow furrowed slightly, maybe he did have something to be nervous about. "Sounds interesting," he murmured.

**A/N: Auggie being a Cubs fan is canon but I wasn't sure if they ever told us who Annie and Danielle go for so I just made that up, let me know if I'm wrong and I'll fix it. Otherwise I hope you enjoyed nervous Auggie. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Dinner**

"It's been a great night, I miss you so much, but I'm going to take the girls upstairs to watch the fireworks on TV - if they can stay awake that long," Danielle announced, much to Annie's surprise.

"Really? Chloe, Katia are you okay with that?" Annie looked worried. She hated how removed she had become from their lives now that they lived in California, though they did talk regularly on the phone and they were probably safer further away from her.

Chloe looked like she was going to argue but she closed her mouth suddenly and shot her mother a cranky look. Danielle nodded and interjected, "They're really tried from the trip. C'mon girls, jammies and bed."

Katia nodded a bit too readily but Annie sighed and gave in, knowing better than to argue with her sister. She stood up and embraced Danielle and each of the girls in turn, murmuring final compliments about how grown up they were looking and good luck with school and soccer and so on. "Facebook me?" Katia asked.

"She's on Facebook now?" Annie asked shocked.

"I monitor it," Danielle promised.

"Is that really a good idea?" Annie asked and shot Auggie a worried glance.

"I'll check it out, don't worry," Auggie reassured her. He was pretty sure someone was already on to that but where Annie and her family were concerned he always double checked.

"Sure," Annie smiled at Katia. "Auggie'll show me how."

Katia rolled her eyes, "You're so old!" she laughed.

"Hey I thought I was the cool Aunt," Annie protested.

"Auggie is way cooler, but you're alright," Katia grinned cheekily.

"Come on girls, Annie and Auggie have a long way to get home," Danielle promoted, ushering them away. They'd eaten in the hotel restaurant so it was a simple matter of taking the elevator up to their room.

"So I passed?" Auggie asked as he hugged Danielle goodbye.

"For now," Danielle grinned, but the smile on her face told Annie that the Anderson charm coupled with three glasses of wine had done the charm.

"Alone at last," Auggie remarked with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows as Annie waved to her nieces one last time before they disappeared into the elevator.

"You know we're just going to get stuck in traffic if we try and cross the city this time of night," Annie warned.

"That's okay, I've got other plans," Auggie reassured her.

"Really? Hang on, did you put Danielle up to this?"

"That's about your clearance level Walker," Auggie teased.

"So you're conspiring with my sister now?"

"Affirmative. Now follow me," Auggie instructed. "Actually strike that, show me to the front door and I'll tell you where to go after that, new years eve crowds aren't very cane friendly."

"We could just stay here…" Annie suggested.

"Oh we'll be coming back," Auggie reassured her and Annie was even more wide eyed.

"You are a man of mystery August Anderson," Annie whispered into his ear as she took his arm and guided Auggie towards the hotel entrance.


	7. Chapter 7

**Revealed**

From there things did get a bit more complicated, the crowds were busy, and rude, Annie thought, but Auggie did an amazing job of looking unperturbed. He knew where he was going and instructed Annie perfectly even though he couldn't possibly have had his bearings. He was right though, the building they arrived at wasn't far away, but it also wasn't what Annie was expecting. It was a high rise office building, yet somehow the security guard seemed to be expecting them and waved them through after they flashed their IDs.

"What is this Auggie?" Annie whispered in a hush tone as they boarded the elevator. "Is this a mission?"

"Not the kind you're talking about. I know you wanted to see your sister – and despite what I said earlier I'm glad we did – for one thing it was great to get to know your nieces."

"You like kids, I can tell."

"I like them, they have Danielle's tenacity and your sense of humour."

"Thankyou, for making the effort to get to know my family."

"Don't thank me, once you've met the Andersons you'll realise that this was easy."

"So you want me to meet your family."

"One day soon, when you're ready."

"For what?"

"For three older brothers, their well-meaning but curious wives, and my busy body parents. If I was nervous about seeing Danielle – and I'm not admitting I was, well, even Annie Walker could be a little intimidated by my folks."

"Well they must be good people, because they raised you."

"That they are," Auggie agreed just as the elevator doors opened on the top floor. "Okay left down the corridor, it's the last door."

"What is?"

"You'll see."

The door led to a cramped stairwell which took them up onto the roof.

"Okay now you've got to imagine a blanket and champagne, getting us in was all I could manage at short notice."

"It's beautiful, we don't need anything else," Annie murmured looking up at the stars then turning to kiss the man beside her. "I love it," she promised.

"And we just made it in time," Auggie announced.

"For?" Annie asked, she'd known they'd left the hotel about half an hour before midnight but she'd been so caught up in following his instructions and trying to keep the general public from knocking him over on the way that she'd lost track of time.

"For that," Auggie replied, his arms around her waist, his face turned towards the sky in anticipation as the first bangs went off the golden and red bursts of fire light up the night sky.

"You can smell them can't you?" Annie smiled.

"Yes I can. Happy New Year Annie."

"Happy New Year Auggie," Annie replied her eyes shining. It was the first time she'd brought in the new year with a man who really truly mattered to her and it felt pretty amazing. She leant into his body and let him crush her against him, comfortable in his strong embrace and most of all grateful. She couldn't believe how far she'd come in the past year, all the things she'd been through, but he had gotten her through it and the year ahead seemed so much more full of promise with Auggie no longer by her side but now firmly entrenched within her heart and her life.

**A/N: Too corny? Too much? I didn't want to overdo it but I did want to give them something a bit special. We've all seen how much Auggie likes pulling strings when he can! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Blind**

A week or so after new year's Auggie woke up in the guest house and rolled over and reached for his phone on the nightstand, and knocked it onto the floor. It was a simple enough mistake, sighted people did it all the time, but when he reached for it he couldn't find it and that led to him being crouched on the floor beside the bed reaching for it under the bed with one hand while using the other to feel for obstacles and because it was morning and he was tired and in unfamiliar surroundings he hit his head. It could have happened to a sighted person, it was the sort of thing that happened to clumsy people all the time, but Auggie wasn't by nature a clumsy person, so when he felt clumsy and awkward it grated on his nerves. It challenged his entire sense of identity as an agent, as a man, as a capable person.

It took enormous energy always being on top of things, always coping, and while he had felt more relaxed with Annie than any of the other women he'd been with, there were still moments of pride when he desperately felt the need to feel the upper hand. It was stupid and maybe just a little bit chauvinistic but it was human nature, his nature anyway, and when you're dating a woman who can take down men twice her size feeling less than superhuman is kind of humiliating.

It helped that Annie hadn't seen the phone debacle, it was easier to pretend things like that didn't happen if no one saw them. But these things tended to snowball if you got worked up about them. Keeping calm had been the biggest lesson in rehab and usually it was the thing that set Auggie above the rest. He didn't panic. He kept just as grounded and confident as someone who could see the obstacles coming at him. It was the reason he still had the guts to go out in the field when Joan would let him. But it didn't mean there weren't time when the world was filled with frustrations and humiliations.

Like dropping the soap in the shower and burning himself on the kettle making coffee. They were rookie mistakes he normally prided himself on having left behind. Maybe he was just a bit hung over. Maybe he was coming down with a cold.

Maybe he was just having a blind day. Auggie sighed and sat Annie's sofa with his cup of coffee. He didn't turn on the TV or use his smartphone to check for messages. He just sat. In the dark. Like usual. He wasn't in the mood for listening to music or news headlines. He finished the coffee and wondered if he should wake Annie, it was getting late. He liked to let her sleep in whenever they got the chance but she'd be grumpy if she thought she'd kept him waiting. He went over to the bed and perched next to her. He lent down to kiss her just as she started to move and they knocked forheads – hard.

"Ouch," Annie groaned.

"Damn it. Sorry," Auggie answered quickly, backing away quickly, and banging his leg on the bedside table as he stood up.

"I'll live," Annie reassured quickly, his tone setting off alarm bells. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Auggie replied shortly.

"I slept great but you don't sound so good, what's wrong?" He brow furrowed in concern.

"Nothing," he snapped. "You overslept, I need to get going."

"Wow, slow down, I thought we were spending the day together?"

"Something's come up."

"Work."

"I should go in," he lied.

"Then I'll come too. What's up?"

"Nothing, I just want to check on the servers."

"There's an entire IT department for that. What's really going on?"

"Maybe I just need some space," he grumbled.

Annie bit back a resort, her face crestfallen with hurt. But she knew Auggie, she knew that when he got like this it was rarely about the other person. "Well I'm driving you," she stated simply.

"You're in your pyjamas, I can get myself to work, I did cope fine before you came along you know. I don't need you to look after me."

Annie climbed out of bed and stood facing Auggie, again she had to bite back harsh words. Anger was starting to rise up within her. "I thought we needed each other Auggie. How many times have you saved my but? Not many girls can say their boyfriends got them out of a Russian prison. "

"That was Eyal. Maybe you'd be better off with him."

"Eyal helped, but you were the one that put him there. You were the one that made the calls and made it happened, and you were the one I came home too."

"Sometimes I wonder…" and then Auggie said something he really shouldn't have. "I mean he's more your type."

"My type? So I have a type do I? Well yours seemed to be braid dead barbie dolls when I met you, and then there was Parker who was about as shallow as they come so no real change there. Maybe I'm just a bit too smart for your Auggie, I can spell my own name after all," Annie shot back, tears stinging her eyes.

The room was silent. They were both facing each other, their faces filled with anger. "I should go," Auggie admitted.

"Maybe you should," Annie glowered.

Auggie grabbed his stuff and made for the door way. He was half way out the door when Annie came to her senses. "Auggie wait. Don't go," she insisted, catching up to him and grabbing his arm. He shook off her grasp but turned around, albeit reluctantly.

"I'm making this about me. You're the one that's feeling bad. Get in the car."

"What?"

"The corvette. We can talk on the way."

"To where?"

"I don't know but I'm going to drive that damn fancy car of yours until you remember that this isn't you August Anderson. You aren't the bitter lonely guy. You get to have bad days and you can tell me about it. You don't need to push me away."

Auggie was stunned. No one, no girl anyway, had ever called him on his shit like that before. No one had ever confronted one of his bad moods and shaken him out of it.

"Get in the car Auggie." Annie repeated. Auggie didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure what he could say. He wasn't ready to say sorry yet, but he would be, and she could wait. She grabbed the keys and unlocked the car for him. "I'll be five minutes. If you disappear I will track you down, and you know I can, so don't," she warned.

Auggie sat in the car, his mind racing, his blood still hot with emotion. He was an idiot, he'd been a total jerk, he'd said horrible things. But she hadn't kicked him out or refused to speak to him. He hadn't had to be the one to try and make things better like he had with Parker.

Annie climbed into the car and closed the door beside him. "I'm not very happy with you right now, but I'm pretty sure I'll get over that. You ever take this thing through drive through? I need a coffee."

Auggie smiled. "Well there's a first time for everything. Just don't scratch the car."

"Don't push your luck Anderson, I'm still cranky with you, one more quip about my driving and I could get lazy and sideswipe a parking meter." It was an empty threat but it had the desired effect.

"Whatever you say Agent Walker," Auggie answered formally. The anger was dissipating for both of them. The wind in their hair would only further relax them. In half an hour things would feel normal, and best of all they would both realise that even when the honey moon period was over and they had a few bad days, they'd be okay.

**A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews, it makes my day to have people read something I've written and enjoy it. I hope you don't mind that this chapter is a bit longer, my Auggie muse had a lot to say today. It is hot off the press though so if you find any mistakes, feel free to give me a heads up and I'll try to fix them up. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Uninvited**

**_NB: Translations of non-English words are given in bracketed bold text next to where they have been used. There's only a few but I thought I'd warn you up front to avoid confusion._**

Annie was busy in what she still thought of as Danielle's kitchen when the doorbell rang. "Can you?" she asked Auggie who was supervising her from his perch on a stool nearby. Secretly Annie hoped that the caller might distract Auggie for a few minutes, he was kind of a backseat driver when it came to cooking and Annie felt inferior enough knowing she would never live up to Danielle's high standards. Danielle might not be there to see it but Auggie was there to taste it and that was pressure enough.

"Got it," Auggie agreed, carefully clambering off the stool and making his way for the door. He was finally getting to that happy level of comfort that came with visiting a place with enough regularity that it felt slightly less like walking through a minefield.

Auggie kept the door on the chain and opened the door a crack to ask, "Who is it?"

"A friend," a richly accented baritone voice came through the door.

Auggie's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Eyal?" he asked as he opened the door carefully.

"Auggie," Eyal greeted in his most chipper tone. "What a surprise."

"I can smell flowers, so I guess this is a personal call," Auggie remarked dryly. He would have been happier to see the other man if he wasn't standing on his girlfriend's doorstep holding a bunch of flowers.

"For Annie," Eyal smiled. "May I?"

"Sure," Auggie answered, his tone flavoured with sarcasm. "So were we expecting you? Annie must have forgotten to mention it," Auggie remarked.

"Oh I thought I'd surprise…. You both."

"How touching," Auggie mumbled as he walked Eyal to the kitchen. "Look honey, we have a guest." He never called Annie honey but it was a reflex action to mark his territory, or at the very least drop a massive hint in Eyal's direction.

"Mah Nishmah?" Eyal greeted her warming, holding his arms open. **_(How are you darling?)_**

"Eya!" Annie screeched and rushed over embracing the tall man. As she pulled away she gave him a critical look, "Tov. Veata?" **_(Good. And you?)_**

"Kakha kakha. Ani mitgaagaat elecha neshama." **_(So-so. I've missed you so much darling.)_**

"I thought you were finding yourself on a sail boat," Annie remarked, switching to English.

"It turns out sail boats are rather small and I'm not that hard to find," Eyal responded with mirth.

"So what brings you to DC?" Annie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"First, these are for you," Eyal announced, presenting her with the flowers.

"Thank you, they're beautiful," Annie murmured. "Wait, just let me turn this down and put them in water. You have to stay for dinner, I've made heaps."

"Well how could I say no to an invitation like that?" Eyal responded, totally ignoring Auggie's glare. "I didn't know you cooked," Eyal remarked.

"Oh I don't," Annie laughed.

"Surely you don't expect a woman as accomplished as Annie to spend her time in the kitchen," Eyal teased Auggie.

Auggie grunted.

Annie interjected quickly, "It was my idea. We usual eat our or get take out or Auggie cooks and I felt guilty, my sister has left me this huge house to use, I thought the least I could do is try just this once."

"Well I admire a woman who is willing to step outside her comfort zone," Eyal complimented. Eyal sensed Auggie was getting angry and thought he'd better explain himself, if only for Annie's sake. "Forgive me Auggie, but I didn't mean to interrupt an evening of romance, I should have called ahead of time, my coming here was something of a whim," he admitted.

Auggie nodded but didn't respond.

"So Annie says you can cook, I'm impressed," Eyal remarked, hoping it might thaw the air between them a little, or at least show Annie that he was trying. Eyal almost constantly found himself doing things he wouldn't have expected where Annie was concerned, and this dinner was one of them.

"Because I'm blind?"

"Because you're American," Eyal laughed, and Auggie could tell that Annie was smiling which just annoyed him even more. Auggie might have a reputation with the ladies who frequented Allan's but Eyal's charm was even more polished and far more calculated.

"Okay, down boys. So Eyal, what bring you here?" Annie asked as she offered him a glass of wine.

"You," Eyal answered directly, giving her a provocative look. Annie gave him a look that said that it wasn't okay to look at her like that in front of her boyfriend and he backed off a little in his intensity. "You did send me that email," he reminded her.

Auggie clenched his fist but his face didn't react. Eyal was impressed, Annie was the sort of woman who brought out hot blooded passion in those around her, he'd seen and experienced it on enough occasions.

"For future reference, 'how's it going?' doesn't require an in-person response," Annie responded.

"You said a few things had changed," Eyal observed, and a look of disappointment crept into his features.

"At work, I meant at work, you didn't think?" Annie was suddenly red. This was the problem with her life, she couldn't send an email saying, 'having a bad day at work Joan's under investigation' so instead she'd made some vague comment in an attempt to vent to an old friend without divulging state secrets.

"Of course not, I just thought it couldn't hurt to pay a visit. But really I am here on business."

"I thought you were retired, and we haven't heard of anything being sanctioned…." Annie warned.

"I am, and it wasn't. I just want to check up on an old contact who hasn't been in touch for a while. Being able to see you was just an added bonus.

"I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression," Annie apologised.

"Not to worry, I'm pleased to see that you're happy, that's all I've ever wanted for you Annie."

"You're very sweet," Annie responded awkwardly.

"And Auggie may I say, if I have to see Annie with another man, I'm glad it's you."

"Thanks for your blessing," Auggie returned archly.

"Please don't take me the wrong way, I'm all talk, you have nothing to fear from me. I expect nothing more than a wedding invitation. I'd like us to all be friends, but my presence is too awkward, let me take this opportunity to leave before we've broken bread."

Auggie defrosted slightly. He wasn't going to look like the lesser man, "Stay, break bread with us. I have you to thank for helping Annie out more than once. I may not trust you but let's not turn this into a pissing match. You're welcome here."

"Well if you two are done can we eat?" Annie interrupted the stand-off between the two men, and they settled into an uneasy truce, though after a few glasses of wine and a few very deliberate reassuring touches from Annie, Auggie realised that there was no need to be childish. Annie had made her choice and it wouldn't be changing anytime soon, unless he himself became the sort of pretentious jerk who couldn't let his girlfriend have male friends and Auggie was too smart to make that sort of mistake.

After Eyal left, Annie turned to Auggie and gave him a look that he'd never see but which tried to say many things at once. "I'm sorry, I know that sounded bad at first, but thank you, I had a good time. I hope it wasn't totally awful."

"I've been through worse," Auggie admitted with a wiry grin. "I don't hate the guy, even if I did think about punching his lights out a couple of times, but I'd like to think I'm maturing."

"Well maturity is very sexy," Annie remarked with a grin as she snuggled against him.

"But you have to tell me, what does neshama mean?"

Annie laughed. "It sounds bad if you translate it literally, but he just means it affectionately. Like a pet name."

"I'm not sure I like that. No scratch that, I know I hate that."

"Let it go Auggie. I'm going to bed with you, you idiot."

"Well when you sweet talk me like that, how could I refuse?" Auggie cooed and pulled Annie's face towards his for a kiss that convinced her that a little jealously wasn't always such a bad thing in a relationship. August Anderson was going to make sure she had no lingering doubts that she'd made the right choice.

**A/N: I don't speak Hebrew so I really hope the way I used it was okay. I do speak more than one language though and to be me it adds a lot to the show that we see Eyal use his native tongue when talking to Annie. Also it's canon that he calls her neshama (a term of endearment, literally it means soul but as a term of endearment 'darling' seems to fit). Anyway if anyone has any notes for me on things to fix/change just leave a review or PM me, thanks!**

**Also, I love Eyal and will have to write some Eyal/Annie fic one day, but don't worry I'm still loyal to team Auggie! I hope you enjoyed Eyal's visit anyway, I enjoyed writing it!**


	10. Chapter 10

**The Talk**

**_NB: I feel like the story is getting a little bit more serious than I intended but if you'll hang in there I promise the chapter *after* this one will be a bit lighter._**

"Annie," Auggie began tentatively. It was the morning after their dinner with Eyal and they were lying in bed side by side on their backs and Auggie was gently running his fingers through her hair.

"Yeah," Annie replied absently, her eyes closed.

"That email, it was a mistake wasn't it? I mean you weren't really hoping he'd come running where you?"

Annie opened her eyes and rolled over so that her head was propped up on Auggie's chest. "Let me make this abundantly clear to you August Anderson. Do I want to remind friends with Eyal Lavin? Yes. Is he very special to me? Yes. Does that in any way threaten our relationship? No, only if you make it a problem, because to me there is no problem. Eyal is a flirt, and yes I probably play along more than I should, but I'll work on that, and you'll work on trusting me a bit more. It's like you and Joan."

"What?" Auggie asked incredulously. "I mean I was following you there, but the bit about Joan?"

"I know you and Joan don't exactly flirt, and she's older and married, but she matters to you. You owe a certain amount of loyalty to her. And she's attractive. And I don't mind you being close with her, as long as at the end of the day, I come first. Do I come first? I know you've known her longer."

"You come first. Do I come first? If the planet get hit by some sort of super bug and there's one vaccine left and it's down to me and Lavin, who gets it?"

"You. It will always be you Auggie. I'd risk my life for Eyal, and you'd risk yours for Joan, that's the sort of people we are, but I'm always coming home to you. I know we haven't talk about how serious this is but…" Annie trailed off. She took a deep breath. "I see us being long term. I wouldn't have risked our friendship and our working relationship if I wasn't serious about us."

"Me either," Auggie agreed. "I just need to know, is there anything he give you that I can't? I mean he can see, you've been in the field with him…" Auggie trailed off. "You don't think you could have more normal relationship with him?"

"Normal? Seriously? Auggie you're blind but he's a former Mossad agent. I trust him when it counts, but he's not even loyal to the same government as me. Eyal's never going to move to DC, he has this fantasy about us running off together into the sunset but it's not realistic, it's a fairy tale."

"Don't you want that kind of excitement? No offense Annie but look at your job. You're not really a stay home and croquet squares kind of girl."

"I love my job, most of the time, but I also need to come home. I need to be normal. I've done the running around the globe thing, that's how I met Ben remember? I get enough travel with my job," Annie smiled. "I'd rather stay home and read the newspaper with you than go sailing in Greece with Eyal."

"What if I don't want to be your safety option?"

"God you are so frustrating! Listen to me. If you want to go on adventures, I'll come with you. We can rent a boat and go sailing. We can hike Everest if you're into that sort of thing. I'm happy to do pretty much anything with you. Haven't you worked that out by now?" Annie's voice was thick with frustration but her hand clasped his firmly and spoke volumes. She has holding on to him and she wasn't letting go.

Auggie melted. "Anything?" Auggie asked in a lowered teasing voice. Annie couldn't believe how quickly he could ricochet from intense to disarming but it was one of the many things she loved about him.

"Don't push your luck!" Annie warned giving him a playful smack. "But seriously Auggie you've got to get over this complex, you're not less than. You've been blind as long as I've known you and I fell in love with you knowing that about you, does it upset me when I see how frustrating it can be for you? Sure. But I don't see it as a disadvantage. Did it ever occur to you that you might be a better person because you've been through this? Our past makes as who we are, including the bad stuff. Now I'm no shrink but even though I know you're happy with me, I think you're worried I'm going to leave you like Parker did."

Auggie frowned. He wanted to protest. He wanted to tell her how meaningless Parker was to him now. But he also knew there was a hint of logic to what she was saying.

"Parker didn't leave because you're blind, and even if she did it wouldn't change the fact that I don't care. You make me feel beautiful even though you can't see me. You satisfy me in every way," she blushed a little when she said that. "Give me some credit Auggie. I'm not that shallow."

"Okay, my bad. No more feeling sorry for myself. I promise. And I will play nice with Eyal. I guess you get to have one guy friend. Is it horrible that I'm kind of relieved Jai's dead right now?" Auggie teased.

Annie hit him.

"Too soon?" Auggie laughed.

"Yeah."

"Hey I miss the guy too, even if he was kind of a self-centred jerk at times."

Annie hit him again. "Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

"That she did, and I think she'd want me to tell you something."

"What's that?" Annie asked, curious.

"I am very lucky to have you. And I am very, very much in love with you. And look this place is Danielle's, I know being here makes you feel closer to her, that's why I haven't really asked before now, but if you want to move in with me, you're welcome. I'll buy extra wardrobes, whatever you need."

"That's so sweet. And I'm kind of ready to let this place go. I'll still need to keep an eye on it I guess but Danielle wants to sell it eventually anyway. You think we can handle living together Anderson?"

"I certainly hope so," Auggie smiled, for once in his life he didn't have a witty come back, but this time he didn't need one. The truth was he wanted to ask Annie to marry him but he didn't want to repeat the mistakes with Parker so he was just going to take it one step at a time.


	11. Chapter 11

**The Sound of Your Heels**

"So about lunch, do you mind if I meet you there? I just need an hour to pick out a few things."

"Things like?

"Shoes, a dress, maybe a new blouse."

"You're going to do all that in an hour? Are you sure you're really a woman?" Auggie teased.

"I can be decisive," Annie reasoned. "There's a great boutique not far fro, the restaurant and I'm kind of short on time."

"Is our relationship eating into your shopping time?" Auggie quipped. Annie answered with a pointed silence. "Wow, you're actually serious, and after I dragged you around that computer store last weekend. Okay my bad. I'd tell you you always look fabulous anyway, but I know you wouldn't believe me. How about this, I'll come with you, that way you can take as long as you need, we can still get lunch afterwards,"

"You, want to come shopping? For shoes?" Annie looked doubtful.

"Hey you know I like a pair of kitten heels as much as the next guy. It could be fun."

"Ok, but I will try to be quick."

"And I'll try to believe that. Come on Walker, grab your bag, we're going out."

"What makes you think I need a bag?"

"I may not be able to see that outfit you're wearing, but I know there's nowhere in it you can hide a purse," Auggie sneered.

"You're actually looking forward to this aren't you?" Annie asked as she gave him a playful push.

At the boutique, Auggie followed Annie inside, and kept his cane at the ready so he could explore without having to be led around the store. Clothing shops were just about the worst kind of stores for blind people - garment wracks were notoriously easy to walk into, the layouts were irregular and made no sense and they were often crowded with people pushing past each other. Despite all of those things counting against their little excursion Auggie figured it was worth a go, the idea of Annie trying on clothes was appealing in itself and if he hated it he'd just make sure that next time he made other plans like going jogging or a workout or playing World of Warcraft online with an old army buddy.

"Okay, so dress first I guess. There's a seat at your two o'clock, the change rooms are on the left but you won't be needing that."

"You don't think they carry my size?"Auggie teased.

"Sorry Aug, it's strictly women's wear here, but hey next time I can take you shopping."

"No thank you, I like my clothes."

"How can you like your clothes when you've never seen them?" Annie queried.

"I like the speed with which you take them off," he whispered in a hush tone. Not so hush that the sales assistant who had just appeared didn't overhear.

Annie bit her lip and exchanged an embarrassed glance with the shop girl. The young woman bit back a smile and went on with her job, "So how can I help you today?"

"I need a new dress for work."

"Where do you work?"

"A museum, but I do a lot of entertaining, major sponsors that sort of thing." The girl nodded, she got the drift, professional but still sexy. That was always a tough line to tread but Annie had been here before and she knew they had the sort of stuff she was looking for.

"Okay, if you want to have a look over here, we've got some great new stock coming in for spring."

"Thanks, that's great, I'll be right from here."

"Would you like me to show your boyfriend to the courtesy lounge? I can get you some water while you're waiting," she offered.

"I'm fine thanks," Auggie reassured her. "Just act like I'm not even here, especially if I walk into something."

"No problem," the girl returned and left them too it.

"So talk me through this, colors, fabrics, or more importantly, hem lengths and necklines," Auggie grinned.

"You're incorrigible."

"Not true, I am in fact, very corrigible – with the proper rewards," he hinted.

Annie laughed then redirected their attention to the task at hand before Auggie got them into any more embarrassing situations with the staff, he might not be planning on coming back but Annie liked this store, "Well this one is green, it looks to be about knee length, with a v neck."

"How low's the v neck? Joan low or Marcy from accounting low?"

"How do you even know how Joan dresses? And who is this Marcy?" Annie asked in a mock demanding tone.

"Let's just say you hear a lot at Allen's after a few drinks. Kind of makes me miss Jai," Auggie winked.

"I knew you two were up to no good whenever I wasn't around. But Joan?"

Auggie shrugged. "You know me well enough to know just because I appreciate the female form doesn't mean I don't respect the woman behind the pretty face. What can I say? I'm a guy."

Annie rolled her eyes. "Am I going to get any actual shopping done?" she complained.

"What kind of green?" Auggie asked, showing he was, in fact paying attention.

"Emerald."

"That could work. I mean I like a girl in red, and blue looks good with your hair, but the green would bring out your eyes," Auggie reasoned.

"All of that and you can't even see? Is there anything you're not good at?"

"No I'm perfect," Auggie grinned. "But I hate Sudoku. Those things drive me nuts."

"You're one of a kind Auggie Anderson. Alright I'll try on the green. You'll wait for me?"

"I think I'll have too, even with the cane it's not worth getting maced before your fellow shoppers realize I can't actually see anything."

"Okay," Annie agreed, a little hesitantly, but left him standing by the rack of dresses.

Auggie lingered for a moment, sussing out the sounds in the shop. He could pick out three other voices – another shopper, the store assistant, and what sounded like a senior staffer because she announced she was going on break. Auggie fingered a few of the dresses on the rack until he felt one that was smooth but still had a bit of give in it. It didn't feel long, and the neckline was defined but normal enough. "Excuse me, mam," Auggie signaled the remaining assistant. "Could you tell me what color this is?"

"It's a dark blue, not navy though, brighter than navy. I guess you could call it sapphire." The assistant wasn't quite sure what to say, she didn't know Auggie well enough to know how much he might understand but she guessed from his questions that he had lost his sight recently enough that he still had some understanding of color.

"Look I want to surprise my girlfriend, as you can guess I don't normally buy dresses for her, do you think this would fit?"

"Sure, that looks like her size."

"I'll take it, can you wrap it up small enough so I can fit it in my bag," he gestured to his satchel.

"No problem," the girl agreed.

"Thanks, just put it on my card, and add a tip for yourself – 10% for helping keep my secret."

"Thank you, that's very kind."

"Don't thank me yet, we still don't know if I'm going to make it out of here without knocking anything over," Auggie teased.

The girl found herself wanting to say how much she admired him, for being so friendly and disarming despite his condition, but you don't say those sorts of things to complete strangers so she just smiled and said thank you a lot and was very careful to ask if he needed anything else. If Annie had been watching she would have gotten some insight into how Auggie managed to have friends everywhere, he had a way with people and he used it to his advantaged without being a manipulative slime ball.

"So, it's okay I think," Annie announced as she walked out to "show" him the dress. She wasn't quite sure what she was meant to do. "It's a little tight but that's your fault for letting me eat too much take out," she complained.

"Let me see," said Auggie fingering the fabric and running his hands from her hips to the curve just above her waste. He stopped before the touching became totally inappropriate, even for a blind guy and found her shoulders instead to feel the shape of the fabric against her chest bone. "Seems pretty good from where I'm standing but you're the one that's got to wear it, try another one if I you want."

"There was one other one I liked, but I can't see it here, someone must have bought it already. Huh. I didn't think they were that busy. It doesn't matter, this will do," she leaned in and whispered, "I'll probably just get blood on it anyway, my dry cleaning bill is incredible these days."

"Trust me, my service costs more, finding someone who actually matches them to the right labels wasn't easy."

"So now I need shoes."

"I'll sit, you parade," Auggie instructed. Annie felt a bit silly but she went along with it, it was no worse than going shopping with Danielle who always wanted her to try on every item in the store. Auggie seemed pretty laid back by comparison.

A few pairs of shoes later – with input from Auggie about which pair of shoes sounded the best (the most expensive). They left the store, arm in arm, and had lunch as planned.

Auggie wasn't sure what to do about the dress. He thought about waiting until they got home, it would be nice to surprise her in private where she could thank him a bit more exuberantly, but he was nervous and he figured if he'd made a mistake it was easier to return it while they were nearby so he gave it to her towards the end of their meal.

"This is just to say thanks for humoring me today, and for giving up your precious shoe shopping time to be with me," Auggie smiled, proffering the parcel he'd retrieved from his bag. The dress had been neatly folded so it was almost the size of a pencil case and then wrapped, luckily it wasn't the sort of fabric that creased.

"What?" Annie asked shocked, and it took her a few moments after she opened it before it all clicked into place. "You bought this? For me? How did you know?"

"Just a lucky guess. I believe they call it blind luck? Anyway I hope you like it."

"I love it, thank you." Annie reassured him and lent over and kissed him gently. They were in a public place, but the way her fingers touched the spot above his top button was hint enough of her intentions.

"Ready to go home?" Auggie grunted, clearly distracted.

"Sure am," Annie agreed.

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Great hearing what people think of Eyal and the way the story is progressing. The next chapter will feature an as yet unmet Anderson. That's all I'm saying.** **And a belated thank you to Seacat for pointing out Auggie has four older brothers not three, I will fix that!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Oh Brother.**

After moving boxes all morning Annie was enjoying the hot water in Auggie's shower. Annie reluctantly turned off the water and toweled off before realizing most of her clothes were still in the living room, so she wrapped a towel around herself and padded barefoot into living area. Annie stopped suddenly when she realized Auggie was standing by the front door embracing a strangely familiar man with a similar mop of brown hair, but maybe two inches taller. Annie new she'd seen the man's face before, in a photograph….

"Wow," the man commented as he caught sight of Annie's frozen form. "Hey brother, you forget to tell me something?" the man asked with a cheeky smile.

"Huh?" Auggie asked, confused.

"Sorry to interrupt, just getting some clothes," Annie excused feeling dumb. "Auggie didn't tell me we had company."

"Please tell me you're wearing a towel?" Auggie asked, groaning as he realizing his mistake.

"Luckily yes," Annie reassured him.

"Still, wow," the stranger remarked with a wink.

"Excuse my brother, he played a lot of football growing up, his brain doesn't always work right.

"This is your brother?"

"One of them," Auggie reminded her. Right one of four, and only one knew what Auggie really did for a living.

"Well I've always wanted to meet Auggie's family, I'll just take my clothes and get dressed and we can do this again properly, I trust you're staying?"

"Wouldn't miss it," the man grinned. "Where's your manners little brother, gotta beer for your out of state guest?"

"Sure thing," Auggie nodded. "Take a seat."

Annie could hear them talking as she slipped into the first thing she laid hands on. It might not have been her first choice as a meeting-the-family dress but it was better than a towel.

"So where you have you been little brother? I had to come to town for work but Mom would have sent me to chase you down sooner or later, she's been worried about you. You came home more often when you were in the army."

"She's really been on your case hasn't she?" Auggie replied with a grimace.

"She's just being a Mom. Honestly, I've been a little worried myself. And you know how Dad gets when he thinks he's on the outs with you."

"I'm sorry Luke, I'll give them a call. I've just had a lot going on at work."

"It can't be all work," Luke pointed out with a nod in Annie's direction. "And are those boxes I saw? You got something to tell me little brother?"

"I asked Annie to move in," Auggie explained.

"It isn't fast is it?"

"For once I think our timing is perfect….. It's a long story. We're old friends, you could say it took me awhile to ask her out."

"You romantic bastard you," Luke smiled, slapping his brother on the shoulder. "So that whole thing with you and Billy's sister?"

"A mistake I'd like to leave in the past. To be honest, if I'd thought Annie was interested I don't think it would have happened at all. But how we got here doesn't really matter."

"You want to tell Mom that?"

"I've told her bits," Auggie sidestepped.

"Well tell her a bit more."

"I just didn't want to put Annie in a difficult situation, after the thing with Parker."

Luke nodded. But Annie had a feeling there was more to it than that, Annie would have to lie to Auggie's parents about how they met, what she did for a living, they would have to pretend they didn't work together. If their families ever met Danielle would have to try and keep their secrets too. And Annie couldn't imagine what it has been like for Auggie telling his mother his engagement had been broken off. Annie's own mother had no idea about Simon or her getting shot, only Danielle knew about the shooting and even she didn't know about Simon or Lena.

"So, Luke is it, what do you do for a living?" Annie asked joining them in the kitchen when they were standing side by side chatting.

"I'm a sales rep, nothing exciting. How about you?"

Annie glanced at Auggie. He couldn't see but he took her pause as his queue to lead the way.

"Luke this is Annie, she works at the Smithsonian, she's a buyer, she has a degree in art history," Auggie explained.

"Smart and beautiful, impressive. So why are you wasting your time with my brother?" Luke teased. "Okay so he's a war hero but don't let that fool you, he's still a nerd."

"He has his charms," Annie smiled. "And I guess I'm a nerd too anyway, I do work in a museum."

"Well you're the best looking nerd I've ever met."

"Thanks," Annie smiled. "So is your wife in town too?"

"Nah, it's a business trip so it's just me. But Cath sure would love to meet you. Bring her home at Easter Auggie, it'll get Mum off all our backs."

"We'll think about it," Auggie agreed reluctantly. "Annie might want to see her sister," which gave them a chance to talk about Annie's family. Annie was polite but when she could she turned the conversation back to the Anderson's. She was interested to learn more about them from Luke's point of view.

"Michael, he's like Auggie, bit of a nerd but a good guy. They were closer growing up than Auggie and I. We were kind of rough on him as kids," Luke admitted. "And Julian's the oldest, he's army too. Pretty high up." That was interesting, Auggie had never mentioned it.

Annie guessed Michael was the brother Auggie had read in.

"So how long have you known my brother?" Luke asked Annie.

"How long is it now?" Annie asked, squeezing Auggie's hand.

"Almost three years," Auggie supplied.

"Three years? It took you three years to ask her out?" Luke asked, incredulous.

Auggie shrugged.

"We were friends first and we always will be," Annie supplied helpfully. "I travel a lot with work but somehow we always managed to stay in touch."

"Mom is going to love her," Luke advised. "Dad too. Does Michael know anything about this?" he asked suspiciously.

"I get it, I've let the family down, I'll come home soon. Now can we please talk about something interesting, like how many Cubs games have you been to this year?" Auggie evaded. Annie smiled and got herself a beer and offered the boys refreshments.

**A/N: I badly want to rewatch past episodes, especially the ones where Auggie has talked to Annie about his family and reading in his brother (I think I got it right the he told one brother but not all of them – so hard going off memory). I'll have proper internet back in a few days that should make things easier and I'm working on getting S1 on dvd. Would love all to buy three seasons but it's just not doable right now. Anyway all help/advice/suggestions if I'm mucking anything up in regards to canon are welcome given this isn't as well researched as I'd like. **

**In better news, I set up a CA centered tumblr – anniescovertaffairs **


	13. Chapter 13

**Gone**

Auggie's brother Luke, had left them just before five because he had a work dinner to attend and he wanted to get ready, but after saying goodbye to Annie he'd arrange to meet up with Auggie for a few more drinks after dinner. Auggie asked Annie to join them but she'd sensed they both needed some brother time and she knew she would have wanted some alone time with Danielle if she were visiting Annie said she needed an early night and told them to have fun.

When she woke up in Auggie's – now their – apartment, the next morning, Annie remembered that she'd fallen asleep before Auggie had come home, she wasn't mad but she was worried she realized he hadn't come to bed at all. It didn't take long to work out Auggie hadn't come home at all – for one thing it was a fairly small one bedroom apartment, for another Auggie had shown her how to check the security camera he had set up to monitor the front door. No sign of Auggie or Luke.

Annie tried to keep calm, after all Auggie was a big boy and had been navigating the city alone for years since his accident. But when he didn't answer his cell alarm bells started to go off in Annie's head.

First she called Luke's hotel in case Auggie had decided to stay there, there was no record of either Luke or Auggie checking in. Next she called work, no one had seen him so she asked someone to run a check on his credit cards and his cell phone. While she was waiting to hear back she called Joan.

"Hi Joan it's Annie, this might be nothing, but I can't get a hold of Auggie, I know there are things that you can't tell me but it's not like him to disappear without telling me," she didn't add, _he's not like Ben, _but she was thinking it. "He was out with his brother last night, but I don't have his number."

"Okay Annie I understand, it's probably nothing, stay calm if we didn't do the job we do you wouldn't be as worried as you are, but as a precaution I do want to pull his card details."

"I've already got someone going through them," Annie admitted.

"Good. You said he went out with his brother last night, where too?"

"II thought they were having drinking at the hotel bar but neither of them is registered there."

"Give me the name of the hotel and we'll pull the closed circuit cameras. There are protocols for this sort of thing Annie but for Auggie I'm going to overstep a little and get involved myself, just call me as soon as you hear anything."

"Thanks Joan. I'll head over to the hotel and ask a few questions."

"Just be discreet," Joan instructed. "And remember, stay calm, this is one of the downsides to dating within the agency, I can't count the number of times I've been through the same thing with Arthur. There's probably a simple explanation, he probably bumped into a friend and crashed on their sofa, Auggie has friends everywhere, but you're right to follow it up, if something has happened the first hours are crucial but I really don't think that's the case here," Joan reassured Annie. Annie knew Joan was taking her seriously, she never heard Joan refer to the DCIS by name, it meant a lot that in this stressful time they were working together rather than fighting and Annie knew that for once Joan was on her side because Joan cared a lot about Auggie too.

"I hope you're right," Annie replied. "Call me if you hear anything."

"Of course," Joan promised. As soon as Joan hung up the phone she called Arthur, "Arthur it's Joan, I've just had a panicked phone call from Annie Walker, Auggie's gone missing, it might be a simple miscommunication but before we pull the city apart looking for him, I need you to check that there isn't something else going on here, if he's on a need to know mission you make sure Annie and I are on the need to know list alright?"

"I'll look into it, but there's nothing from me," Arthur replied rubbing his forehead. The worried tone in his wife's voice warned him to take this seriously. He hoped and prayed that Auggie Anderson was safe, because if he wasn't he wasn't sure the agency could afford the ransom Joan would be willing to pay, and if Joan asked for more resources than the agency was willing or able to give Arthur knew that his wife would never forgive him for being the one who had to say no.

**A/N: Sorry to leave it hanging but that's all I've got time for right now…. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Search**

**_NB - most of the chapters in this series stand alone, but this one follows on from "Gone"_**

It was less than five minutes before someone from the office was on the phone to Annie with Luke's cell number but he wasn't picking up. The hotel he'd stayed at was hosting the conference he was in town for but when Annie arrived no one had heard or seen Luke since dinner the previous night. The bar staff didn't seem to remember Luke but they admitted they'd been busy with the conference in town and one tall dark hard haired salesperson was much another.

"Have you seen this man?" Annie pressed the bartender showing him Auggie's photo. "He's blind, he would have had a cane with him."

"Hang on, I do remember a blind guy, friendly guy."

"Do you remember anything else? Was he alone?"

"He had a friend with him I think, someone from the conference, they drank a fair bit."

"Do you remember seeing them leave? They didn't check into a room."

The man shrugged, "Sorry, like I said it was busy."

Each phone call after that brought more disappointment and concern – yes there was a record that Auggie paid the bar tab, but no record of any activity after that, no call to a tax or car service or any other mobile number. That led to Annie being in Auggie's office with the closed circuit camera recordings which the hotel had turned over to local "police" (in reality the CIA). Working with one of Auggie's buddies from Tech Ops it wasn't long before they found footage showing two intoxicated brothers leaving the hotel but every minute weighed heavily on Annie.

"What were you thinking Auggie?" Annie muttered under her breath.

"He'll be fine An-, I mean Agent Walker," the apprentice Auggie assured her.

"Thanks Tom," Annie replied automatically, "I hope so." But she didn't believe it.

"What have you found?" Joan asked coming up behind them.

"They left the hotel together, they were drunk, and then they disappear," Annie explained. "Which is bad, because there were enough cameras in that area to track them if they were on foot, and they didn't get a cab."

"I think we have to assume that this is agency related, in which case we have to hope that someone has taken in order to make use of his particular skills," Joan advised. Annie was already thinking the same thing.

"You think they wanted him to hack something? But why not use a civilian?"

"Civilians don't cope well under stress; they don't have experience with the same networks. They wouldn't be able to cover their tracks as well, and hackers are notoriously secretive about their identity. Auggie is one of the best there is, not just in the agency but in the US, but because he works for us he has more profile, more players have met him. There's a chance someone has been watching Auggie."

"Surely we would have noticed…" Annie began to object but she stopped short when she realised that she couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

"Don't blame yourself Annie. This could have happened at any time, Auggie's gotten himself into trouble before and he's gotten out of it. If whoever has him has been watching it's likely they waited until they saw a chance like this – Auggie was intoxicated, he was with someone he cared about who wouldn't make trouble."

"You think whoever took him knows I'm CIA?"

"They might," Joan admitted. "Or maybe it was just good timing. This is just speculation; it could be someone trying to exact revenge or ask for ransom."

"But you don't think so."

"If it was a ransom I think we would have heard something by now, and if it was someone out for revenge…"

"It would already be too late," Annie filled in, apprehensively. She swallowed hard and gathered herself. "So we get everyone who knows anything about computers to start looking for activity online. Hackers have signatures, Auggie would too."

Joan nodded, "I'll call the meeting and brief them."

"No, this should come from me," Annie objected.

"Annie you've got to acknowledge that your interest in this case is not just professional and that can cloud your judgement," Joan warned. "So we'll do it together, and we'll bring him home. But Annie, if you have any favours owed to you, now might be the time to call them in."

Annie nodded. "I'll try Eyal, he might hear things we haven't."

Joan nodded, "that's exactly the sort of thing we need. It's a shame we don't have any way of getting in contact with Natasha Petrova," Joan voiced out loud remembering Auggie's hacker ex-girlfriend.

"She's not the only hacker we've worked with," Annie reminded Joan.

"Red Rover," Joan surmised.

"Pilar. I can reach out."

"You could but it should go through proper channels… which can be timely…."

"It would be faster if we never had this conversation."

Joan nodded slightly. "I'll see you in ten, seminar room 1, I'll pull everybody I can."

"Thanks Joan," Annie found herself saying again.

**A/N - Thanks for reading and reviewing, as you may have noticed I try to add a new chapter every 24-36 hours, so there is more to come...**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hostage**

Auggie had struggled when they pulled him into the car but they'd used chloroform and he'd blacked out. When Auggie came to, he whispered Luke's name but it was a gruff voice with only the slightest trace of an accent that answered.

"Mr Anderson we understand you are a very talented man, a unique one of a kind man. And our man here, Steve, he's a bit of a fan," the kidnapper gestured to a scruffy and bruised college freshman but Auggie was none the wiser. "Now he said he can't do what we need him to do, but he could help us find someone who could, and that led us to you."

"I don't understand, I just work for an IT company, I'm not a hacker I test software that's it, there are hundreds of us, I'm nobody." That earned him a slap across the face.

"Don't waste our time. We've done our research. We know who you are. Would you like us to explain to your brother?" Damn, Auggie though, he had hoped the kidnappers would think Luke was a friend, the stronger they believed the connection was between the two men the more they would use Luke to manipulate Auggie.

Auggie shook his head just slightly, hoping Luke wasn't watching. The less he knew the better. "Whatever this Steve person has told you, it's wrong. Yes I used to be a hacker but I'm blind now. I'm just an analyst."

"There is a short list of people who can access the highest levels of the CIA and NSA databases from outside of the agency and we know that you're one of them."

Auggie stopped pretending he couldn't help them when he heard one – if not more – of his brother's ribs crack and Luke cried out in pain.

"I'll try, but only if you let him go," Auggie demanded. He knew it wouldn't be that easy but it was the starting point for negotiations. "I can't promise you anything," he warned. "Since 9/11 security has been tightened everywhere. It depends what you want, some files are protected, retinal scans, remote hard drives isolated from the network, it just might not be possible. But I will try."

"You'd better try because if you pull any tricks, if you try to get away, or mess us around, or stall, your brother pays with his life. We break a bone every hour until the job's done," the man returned.

Luke was an ex-football player and he was proud of his high pain threshold but he was terrified and confused. He knew his brother was good with computers, but this, this was beyond anything he could conceptualize; things like this didn't happen to boys from Illinois who grew up in a normal family. Heck their parents were still married.

"I need a two hour head start, this isn't an easy job and if you don't want to get caught I need two hours to concentrate and get this done and if you're hurting my friend I'm going to be pretty distracted."

"Two hours and then we break his leg."

"How's this going to work anyway, I'm not sure if you've noticed but I've got a bit of a vision problem, I can't just use a regular computer."

"We prepared for your arrival Mr Anderson."

"Well doesn't that make me feel special," Auggie sneered but he was already thinking – if Annie and Joan can track the equipment they might be able to find me. There were a handful of people in the world that used the sort of high tech modified devices that enabled Auggie to do his job despite his disability.

"You won't feel very special if you're responsible for your brother's death," the man sneered back.

"Let's get started then," Auggie said with a sigh. "What is it you want me to do?"

"We need names and locations."

"Of?"

"Informants, we believe you call them assets. We call them liabilities."

Auggie was filled with a sinking feeling. His brother's life was at stake but assets were vital to national security. Could he really risk the safety of the country to save his brother? Or himself?

**A/N: Another short update but between family birthdays and the chance that there might be a power outage where I am tonight this is all I could do. The suspense is getting too me too so I hope you're enjoying it as well. Thanks again for the great reviews x**


	16. Chapter 16

**Help**

"Eyal - this is Annie." Even over the phone, Eyal could tell from the stress in her voice that something was wrong, very wrong.

"What is it Neshama?" Eyal asked directly, dispensing with their usual banter.

"Auggie's been kidnapped. We're not sure who's got him. The agency is handling it, but so far we don't even know who has him."

"How long has it been?"

Annie glanced at her watch, "About nine hours," she admitted.

"And you haven't heard from the kidnappers."

"I know it sounds bad, but we think, we hope, that they're using him to try and hack into a secure network, probably something in the government."

"I'll make some phone calls and then I'm getting on a plane."

"You don't need to do that, the CIA has put together a task force."

"I know Auggie has a lot of friends but how many of those agents would risk their jobs if it comes down to a direct order? Use their resources Annie but when it's time for the extraction you want to take in as many loyal friends as you've got."

"Thank you Eyal."

"I'll see you in three hours, hopefully you'll have him home safely by them and it will be a purely social visit.

"Three hours? How?"

"I'm still in the states," was all Eyal said by way of explanation. Annie didn't ask for anything more, it was enough to know that for whatever reason she could count on him. "I'll see you soon, Neshama. Auggie's tough he'll get through this." Eyal wasn't sure where the instinct to look after Annie Walker and her friend came from, if it was lust his last instinct would be to protect her boyfriend, if it was love he was a fool but then aren't all lovers fools? The last reason and perhaps the most shocking of all was friendship. He and Annie had saved each other more than once, not just out of duty but because of a growing affection. Annie was the only American who knew the existence of his son. Annie was the only American he'd fly across the country to help without in being in his own self-interest.

After Eyal hung up with Annie he booked a flight to DC, next he began calling and emailing contacts. He would have preferred to pay a few visits in person but he was short on time and in the wrong postcode.

It was one of Auggie's mini-me's in tech ops who came up with the idea of tracing the tech that Auggie would need. It still took hundreds of phone calls to narrow down the list of buyers to the most likely candidates. The kidnappers had used a stolen credit card.

"Damn it," Annie cried when they told her the news. She was trying very hard to hold herself together but she had to wipe tears away from the corners of her eyes before her co-workers saw them. She was so caught up in her own emotions that she didn't realise Joan had joined them until she spoke.

"Annie, I have some good news," Joan's was warm and positive. Annie's hope soured as she turned to the older blonde woman. "The cavalry are here, and she's pretty confident."

Pilar wondered in behind Joan, she had her ipod plugged in and she was wearing a cheeky black leather jacket with a white blouse and grey plaid skirt and black converse shoes. She still didn't look very CIA but she was exactly what Annie needed.

"Pilar, thankyou for coming," Annie gushed.

"No problem. Auggie's kind of a hero around here, I'm gonna be an even bigger hero when I save his ass," Pilar grinned.

"You think you can find him?" Annie asked doubtfully.

"With one hand tied behind my back," Pilar reassured her.

"Thank you. He's in danger and so is his brother," Annie warned.

"He has some cool stuff here," Pilar smiled, gesturing to Auggie's equipment. "He seemed like a pretty cool guy when we met and he's important to Joan, I won't let her down. Pillar settled down at the computer, took a laptop out of her satchel and opened it up next to it, adjusted her ipod and then waved the others away, "Now out. I need space, and no distractions. I'll let you know when I have a track on him."

"I suggest we do as she says," Joan smiled to Annie, and guided her out of the office.

Pilar still had a European tilt to her voice but she seemed to have grown into her new role with the CIA, in her own way. Annie wondered how much Joan had to do with that, she hadn't imagined that Joan of all people would have had an ongoing relationship with the girl but they seemed almost close. "

"I just feel so helpless," Annie confined to Joan outside. "I haven't done one thing all day that's made any difference. It's been ten hours now, I'm scared for him."

"You're a field agent, you're used to taking action not sitting back and waiting. That's the hardest part of my job, but it does pay off and this will. It's natural to worry but they're not going to hurt him if they need him," Joan again tried to reassure the young woman, patting her shoulder. Annie appreciated the effort, she worried sometimes that her relationship with Joan would never recover from the Lena incident but it meant a lot that Joan was there for her.

Annie nodded but she couldn't help but think about what would happen if the kidnappers no longer needed Auggie, and what they might be doing to get him to cooperate.

As the two hour mark approached Auggie had penetrated what he knew to be a dummy server, set up by the CIA to look and act like one of their own, but it was really just a dead end for would be hackers. He desperately wanted to send out some sort of signal for help but he knew the other hacker, the one he'd worked out was a younger man, terrified and out of his depth, was watching. It was his job to make sure Auggie did the right thing, so he did his best to make it look like he was following orders and hoped he was getting away with it.

"Where's our information Mr Anderson?" his kidnapper prompted. "Or do I break your brother's leg?"

"I'm through the first set of firewalls but it's going to take time," Auggie explained. "Give me another hour, if this was easy anybody could do this. What you're asking is as much a matter of chance as skill, or else he would have been able to do it," Auggie gestured vaguely in the direction of the other hacker.

Auggie heard a boot slam into bone and flinched. "Is he telling the truth?" the kidnapper demanded, but it was the other hacker, not Luke that responded.

The younger man cried out in pain but whimpered, "Yes." Auggie didn't know if the man was being brave or if he was just too traumatized to understand what Auggie was doing. Either way Auggie was grateful.

"I can compromise then, I'll just break a toe, you have another hour before I break his leg," the kidnapper instructed.

"Annie, I'm tracing some activity online, I think it's him, but you'd know better than me," Pilar explained.

"I'm not very good with computers," Annie admitted, scanning the computer screen, it was all just programmers code as far as she could see. Instinctively she wished Auggie was there to explain it.

"These numbers keep popping up in places they shouldn't, its three pairs of double digit numbers," the girl explained, fingering the screen. "Could they be coordinates?"

Annie read the numbers over and over again in her head, then broke out into a smile. "They're not coordinates, but if you put them together, that's my birthday."

"Sounds like something your friend would do," Pilar smiled. "It's still going to take some time, the way the numbers are scattered, I think he's trying to hide the information, like maybe someone is watching him? Whatever's going on he's using mirror sites and dummy servers to try and stall them."

"So he's not giving them the information they're looking for," Annie observed worried. Her mind flashed back to Amsterdam and Auggie's insistence that she not reveal assets to save Eyal. Auggie had found another way then and he was trying to know but he was alone and vulnerable and she knew that it could cost him his life. If his kidnappers found out what he was doing they would at the very least hurt him or Luke. They might kill Luke to teach Auggie a lesson or give up on the whole plan out of fear of being traced and dump both men. If the later happened Annie didn't like their chances of getting Auggie home in one piece.

"No," Pilar admitted, realizing what that would mean to Annie but knowing that she needed the information. "It looks like they want him to hack into the CIA server if that helps, but now I need to concentrate."

"Great work Pilar, keep it up," Annie pattered her on the shoulder and left to tell Joan. At least it was news, but it wasn't enough to stop the churning feeling in her stomach. Annie found herself making silent promises to higher powers as she walked towards Joan's office, while simultaneously imagining the vengeance she would wreck on the guilty parties. She wasn't sure that was very Christian of her but she hoped that in such instances if there was a God her or she would understand.

**A/N: I didn't think I'd be able to do such a long update tonight but I wanted to bring us closer to the finish. I rewatched parts of "Sound and Vision" first and Pilar while accented had good English and was quite street smart so I allowed for that (plus some time living in the states between that episode and now) and kept her fairly young and casual. I don't think she would ever be someone to stand on ceremony. **

**I hope this storyline isn't getting too long and drawn out, but I promise there will be some more A/A fluff in the chapters ahead. Hang in there. I hope the violent bits aren't too brutal, that's never my favourite part of any show but the tension/scenario seemed to call for it. Let's hope Annie gets to nurse him better soon :-D Also for any girl power fans – if Annie seems a bit weak and helpless now that won't last, but I did think for someone like Annie this would be the hard part – having to stay by while the techie experts did their thing. **


	17. Chapter 17

**Rescue Part 1**

Annie was standing outside the office where Pillar had taken up residence when she heard Eyal's voice calling, "Nashema." Eyal was being escorted through the building by two armed agents.

"How'd you get in here?" Annie asked as she hugged him. "I don't think they'd give you clearance now you're not with Mossad."

Before Eyal had a chance to answer Joan appeared behind them, clearly she knew he was coming. "I told security he's consulting, but he's got a visitor's pass only so he can't leave your sight, if he so much as wants to go to the bathroom without you send an agent with him," Joan explained. "I know you're friends but his status has changed. Some people won't be very happy with Eyal being here so don't push it."

"Thanks Joan," Annie smiled.

"I'll be on my best behaviour," Eyal promised in his cheekiest voice.

"Can he see the boards?" Annie asked seriously. She was referring to the pin boards and white boards where they'd stuck up print outs of all of the intel they'd been able to gather on possible suspects. "He might be able to shed some light, our contacts haven't been very helpful, maybe his will, we need a fresh set of eyes," whether she meant to or not Annie was pleading.

Joan nodded and prayed she was doing the right thing. "But once you leave this building you forget everything you saw," Joan warned.

"Under the circumstances I'm willing to agree to that, I'm here to help not to cause trouble," Eyal responded seriously.

Joan accepted that, albeit with a lot of apprehension. She took that as her note to leave. The relationship between Annie and Eyal still worried her, but it could prove useful and with Auggie at Annie's side she worried a little less about the former Mossad operative's influence. Thinking back to her first year with Arthur Joan knew just how terrifying it would be to feel like you were losing the soul mate you'd just found and being friends with your lover only made it worse. As much as her and Arthur fought, their relationship had been founded in mutual interests and mutual respect and that made him more than just a husband, he was also a confidant and a friend. It was hard to have friends in the agency and harder still to maintain normal friendships outside the company, one way of coping was to be careful who you invested in emotionally, Joan herself tended to keep people at arm's length, only a few like Auggie and Seth ever got closer than that. She certainly hadn't befriended a Mossad agent in quite the way that Annie had but as frustrating as Joan found it Annie had an irritating way of making the exception to the rule work out. Protocol said any real friendship with a non-American was a conflict in interests and inter-agency relationships should be civil but purposeful but Joan knew that this wasn't the day to lecturer Annie on protocol.

"So has there been any word?" Eyal asked, studying the worry on Annie's face. He could tell she was only just holding it together.

"He's alive, it looks like they're using him to try and hack into the CIA database."

"Can he do that?"

"Probably, but he wouldn't."

"Not even to safe himself."

Annie nodded sadly.

"Okay so we find him before that becomes a problem," Eyal reassured her. "Now show me what you've got."

Annie nodded and led him to the ops centre.

Eyal surveyed the information, cringing internally because he could tell the CIA were grasping at straws and that wasn't a good sign but he couldn't tell Annie that now.

"Our best shot at getting our location is our hacker here tracing him, I just feel so useless looking at all of this and not being able to help, or knowing anything about who has him and what we might be going into," Annie explained.

Eyal nodded. "Any chance its domestic?"

"What?"

"NSA, FBI, even someone from your own agency, someone with an interest in this information who can't get hold of it through official channels – or doesn't want too. If the information is accessed here it can be traced, but if they can hack into it from outside the building, well then no one would suspect an American."

Annie was shocked. She didn't want to believe that was possible. Eyal was just being paranoid right? But even in her time in the agency she had seen how there were off book operations and interagency politics. "But they wouldn't hurt him then would they?"

Eyal shrugged slightly, he didn't want to say it but he had too, "That depends. I'm just saying if I was you, I'd ask questions about who is going in when you raid the place, because those sorts of situations, they can get messy, it wouldn't be hard for someone to get caught in the crossfire if someone wanted things to go that way." Eyal wasn't sure if he was right, but his gut told him that Annie's one weakness had always been trust – trust in the agency, trust in those around her. She wouldn't question the agencies motives.

Annie swallowed hard.

"So what do we do if it is the CIA?"

"Do you think you can get the location before Joan?"

"Pillar and Joan are pretty close. I could try. What if we bring Joan in on this?"

"Would she do that? I know she doesn't trust me."

"She cares about Auggie. She hates the politics in this agency. She might agree to send in a scout mission. I'll talk to her."

Eyal nodded.

"I'm perfectly capable of running this operation," Joans voice was tense. "We're very close to bringing him home, I've got our best people on it."

"If something goes wrong you're leaving yourself open to criticism that you were too emotionally involved," Arthur warned.

"Would you even be saying that too me if I were a man? Or is this because you're my husband and you think I'm too emotionally involved."

"I think we should be emotionally involved, this is one of our guys, I'm just telling you I've had a few phone calls, there are people trying to influence how this operation is run," Arthur explained.

"Well they shove it. He's my agent, I trained him, I know him."

"What about Annie, surely she can't be at her best under these circumstances, and after everything she's been through in recent months."

"Are you questioning my decision to allow Annie to be involved? You know as well as I do the moment I take her off this she goes off on a wild goose chase that could get them both killed.

"Maybe Annie Walker needs to be reminded of the chain of command around here."

"Are you saying I don't have authority over my agents?"

Arthur held his hands up in a sign of surrender. "I'm not saying any of those things. I'm just trying to help."

"Well give me space to do what I need to do. That would help," Joan exploded and stormed out of his office.

It was then that Annie came bustling along with Eyal trailing behind. "We need to talk," Annie began.

Joan sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"In private," Annie added, glancing at the DCIS' door.

Joan nodded reluctantly and they continued their conversation in the privacy of her office.

When Annie explained Eyal's theory Joan was sceptical, she had to be, but in light of her conversation with Arthur she was willing to compromise, she would have a backup team ready but Annie and Eyal would be the ones to go in first when Pillar gave them the address, which hopefully would be any minute now.

"Annie before you do this, I want you to understand, you're taking a risk here, I'm taking a risk here. If something goes wrong…." Joan trailed off.

Annie nodded seriously. "If something goes wrong I'll take responsibility. You can say you had nothing to do with this."

Joan thought about that for minute. She walked over to her window and rang her hands. Common sense told her to agree. To let Annie protect her. But it was her job to protect Annie and Auggie,it didn't matter if they didn't report to her anymore, she would always see them as her operatives. "No, that won't be possible. I'm coming in with you," Joan advised.

Annie looked surprised, and worried.

Joan turned to her, "I'm serious, you need more people and we don't know who we can trust. I'll come with you. I'll get someone to cover for me here," she reasoned.

Annie nodded uncertainly, but it was the best she could hope for. She was shocked at the extent of Joan's loyalties and she would need to reassess her opinion of her old mentor, but that could wait until Auggie was home safe.

**To Be Continued/ Completed…. In Rescue Part 2**

**A/N: Sorry sorry sorry, one more chapter on this, sorry its taking longer than planned, my car broke down yesterday and I'm moving gah. Excuses excuses. At least I'm not being held hostage but a mysterious kidnapper. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Into the Lion's Den**

**_A/N: Sorry for the delay, I felt really rotten about leaving you all hanging the last couple of days but it couldn't be helped. I'm back now but it will be a little slower coming, real life sadly must go on. But on the other hand this is a really long update! _**

Eyal pulled Annie aside for a minute before they climbed into the van. She was impatient to get to Auggie, every fiber of her being wanted to run in there and carry him out, as ridiculous as that sounded. Seconds before the address had come through from Pilar she had felt exhausted, like she hadn't slept for a week, but now she felt invincible. She knew it was adrenaline and she knew she had to be careful not to making any rash decisions, which was why some small logical part of herself was glad Joan was running the op.

"Annie before we go in, just be ready, I've been doing this longer than you and people in these situations, they can look pretty bad. Just focus on getting him out," Eyal advised.

"I've seen things too Eyal."

"It's difference when it's someone you care about," he explained, he put a hand on her shoulder and looked straight into her eyes. "When I finally got to you in Russia, I was worried but I was relieved also. I was trying to prepare myself for much worse. As it was, seeing you like that, it was hard. But I knew you were tough, you are a survivor Annie and so is Auggie. Maybe even more than you and I, we haven't been through what he has already."

Annie nodded gravely. She knew Eyal was just looking out for her. She knew he cared, almost a bit more than a friend should, but friendships could be complicated and messy that didn't mean they weren't worth having, after all her and Auggie had been friends before they had been lovers and she had been prepared to stick it out even when he was set on marrying someone else. It made it easier with Eyal that she felt a little less for him than he did for her but not so much less than she felt it was unfair to stay friends with him.

Despite her pep talk from Eyal Annie found her foot was tapping a beat on the floor in the van as they drove towards the warehouse where Auggie was being held. Joan gave her a look of concern and Annie realized she needed to center herself so she closed her eyes and filled herself with the certainty that Auggie would be okay. The alternative wasn't worth considering. In the heat of the moment she didn't care if she walked out alive if he wasn't.

"Alright, I'll take point, Eyal will scout around the building while we cover him, then I'm the first go go in, then Annie, Eyal you cover our behind, we'll use the back entrance, there are a lot of narrow rooms there while the entrance opens into a bigger room, it might be our best chance to sneak up on them."

They nodded. All three were armed. Joan was really hoping she wouldn't have to put that in the report, she was having enough trouble explaining Eyal's involvement.

After a few tense minutes Eyal reported back. "Either it's a small operation or they aren't expecting any company."

Joan nodded grimly, "If they have inside information they might not think they need a guard. They were expecting more of a heads up."

"They thought they'd know if when we were coming," Annie surmised.

"It's a good thing I didn't abandon the task force, as far as Langley is concerned Agent Anderson is still missing and we're still trying to trace his location. I'd like to survey the place for longer, see how many people are coming and going, we're going in there blind not knowing how many there are in there but if we wait we could lose the element of surprise," Joan explained.

Annie and Eyal nodded.

It was irrational but Annie was frustrated when the first thing they saw inside wasn't Auggie. But she kept her calm as they checked rooms, knowing that at any moment they could be discovered and the kidnappers might try to move or hurt Auggie.

"You'll get your information, don't hurt him," Auggie pleaded.

"You said that an hour ago, and the hour before that."

"This isn't easy, but look at my screen, I'm almost there, just give me another minute," Auggie pleaded.

It was too late. There was a snap and Luke screamed and screamed. Auggie wanted to throw up or hit someone. Pilar's coded messages told him help was near. He wasn't sure how much longer they could hold on. He needed to do something.

The warehouse was hardly a hive of activity, the first man they found looked like he was on a break, he was smoking, had a coffee next to him and the paper open. He jolted in surprise and reached for his gun but Joan was too quick for him.

"Don't make a sound. Hands in the air and I don't have to shoot you," Joan instructed carefully. Annie knocked him out before he had a chance to argue.

"We could have asked him for information," Joan complained.

"And he could have alerted the others," Annie countered.

Joan shrugged. "Lets keep going."

"Did you hear that? Sounded like a scream," Eyal whispered.

"Come here, give me the name you're looking for and I'll show you," Auggie offered.

"We don't want one name we want them all."

"It's a data base, just give me one name to start with," Auggie stalled.

"Renee Fisher," the man spat. "Look that up."

"Here, see for yourself," Auggie offered. The man approached and then lent over the screen, that was the moment Auggie needed. He drove his elbow hard into the bottom of the man's rib cage, then brought the computer monitor down hard on his head.

"Luke how many are there?" Auggie called out urgently. Luke was still moaning and screaming.

"Six maybe more. I think. The others aren't far away, they come and go but don't say much. They tied me up."

"What about that other guy. The hacker. Brad you still here? I can help you." Auggie felt for the man that was closer to him, he'd heard them pushing Brad into a hair behind him, he was probably tied to the chair like Auggie.

"You're crazy," the younger man sobbed. "They're going to kill us all now."

"I'm CIA, there's people coming, you must have seen the extra numbers in the code I was writing and reading, you didn't work out what it meant? You didn't tell them so I'm guessing you're with us?"

"I, I, I wasn't sure," Brad stuttered. "That's why I didn't tell them. I'm nobody, I thought they just wanted a hacker, someone to break into their bosses files or whatever, nothing like this."

"Well we all make mistakes, now I need your help."

"My legs are tied too. Both of them. And I think one's broken."

"I know you're both hurting. We're going to get out of here, but only if we work together. The guy I hit, he's not moving is he?"

Luke shook his head, "You got him good Aug, he's out cold."

"Great, has he got a gun or keys? I'll search him anyway but I can't do much until I can get this stupid chair off my leg."

Auggie's left leg was tied to the hair with a black plastic slip tie.

"There's a gun, a revolver," Luke supplied. "And he has keys."

"Thanks," Auggie replied as he twisted uncomfortably patting the man down.

Auggie heard gunshots right as he pulled the gun from the man's pocket. "Everyone get down. Luke can you move? You need to take this," he instructed.

"I can't get up," Luke admitted.

"Okay Brad, you need to take the gun," Auggie instructed feeling for the other man. "I'm trusting you. You know how to use one of these?"

Brad shook his head, "I can't, I've never used a gun – except in computer games."

"Well it's an automatic so it's pretty much the same thing; hopefully you won't need to use it. I'm going to see if I can find anything to cut this tie, Brad you watch the door, if someone comes be ready to use that thing. Luke, tell me about the room we're in, start with the doors, then everything you can see, anything that might be useful," Auggie instructed. "I know I have a lot to explain but I need you to help me out here. My friends are coming, we just need to stay alive long enough for them to get to us."

Brad was shaking but he did was he was told. Luke began his description of the room. Auggie found the keys and was beginning to saw at the tie when he heard a noise at the door.

"There's someone coming," Brad blurted.

"Okay, keep your calm, don't pull the trigger, it could be help. Have any of the kidnapers been women? I haven't heard any."

"Just men," Luke supplied. "If you see a woman it's probably help, don't shoot them okay Brad? Got it?"

Brad nodded. Auggie took his nervous silence as confirmation.

"Auggie?" Joan's voice called as she entered the room. "CIA, you might want to put down the gun," she added.

Auggie grinned. "About time. Brad, put down the gun. We're going to be alright. Joan, meet Brad, he's learning the hard way that hacking is not a very good profession to be in. The other guy over there is one of my big brothers, they both need to get to a hospital."

Joan nodded and picked up the gun from Brad.

"We're clear," Joan reported but Annie was already calling Auggie's name and rushing forward to untie him.

"Are you hurt?" Annie asked in urgent tones.

"I'll live, Luke's worse. Nice to see you by the way, sorry I didn't call to say I wouldn't be home. I hope I'm not in too much trouble," Auggie grinned.

"So much trouble," Annie smiled and she kissed him quickly even though she knew she shouldn't. She needed to stay focused, but the way his hands cupped her face as they kissed reassured her that all would soon be right in the world. He was still her Auggie. She helped him to his feet. He was awkward and almost fell but she steadied him.

"Did you get them all?" Auggie asked.

"We think so but we'd better be careful, there's only three of us."

"So saving me wasn't a top priority at the agency today?" Auggie quipped.

"We're worried there's a leak, Joan and Eyal and I are here off book."

"Eyal's here?"

"I've got your back brother," Eyal called.

"Nice of you to visit," Auggie returned.

"Joan let him work with you?" Auggie asked even more surprised.

"Don't get used to it," Joan retorted, she was untying Luke and helping him to his feet. "I know it hurts but can you stand on it?" Joan asked.

Luke nodded.

"I can't," Brad explained when Annie untied him. "I can't stand."

"Try putting your weight on my shoulder," Annie advised.

He screamed and crumpled when he tried. "Don't leave me here," he begged.

"Getting him out of here isn't going to be easy," Annie advised.

"Splint the leg," Eyal suggested. "I'll carry him out with me, Annie lead, Auggie and Luke will follow. I'll come behind them and Joan can watch my back."

He was overstepping but Joan agreed reluctantly it was their best plan. It was something of a comfort that he seemed to trust her at least. It made her less suspicious of his motives.

It felt like a long way to the exit with Brad groaning and complaining behind them.

"Get down," Joan instructed when she heard footsteps approaching.

"In here," Annie added, opening a door to their right and pushing Luke inside, Auggie followed and Eyal and Brad brought up the rear. But there was no time left for Annie or Joan to hide as two men burst around the corner. Annie positioned herself in front of the door, her gun at the ready.

Joan shot to kill but this time the enemy were prepared, both men had guns at the ready. Joan's bullet found its mark but so did theirs.

Joan tried to aim for the second shooter but her aim was thrown off by her shattered shoulder. Annie didn't miss.

"Joan," Annie cried, rushing superior's side.

"I'm fine," Joan gasped through gritted teeth. "Check that we're clear and then let's get the hell out of here."

Annie nodded. "Wait in here," she instructed and helped Joan over to the room where the others where hiding. Eyal was guarding the door from the inside, having propped Brad up against a wall with Auggie and Luke trying to steady him.

"Joan got hit," Annie explained as she helped the older woman inside. "I think that was the last of them but I'll scout ahead. Try to control the bleeding."

Eyal nodded and helped Joan further into the room. "Please sit down, it'll be easier to control the bleeding," Eyal suggested, pressing his hands against her shoulder.

Annie went back out into the corridor and closed the door behind her.

**A/N: This didn't quite come out how I planned. I wanted it to be more Annie centric but once I'd put the players there this is what unfolded. **


	19. Chapter 19

**Be Still**

**_A/N: Warning – there are flash backs woven into this story chapter, so it actually starts *ahead* of where we finished off last chapter, then fills in the blanks. I hope it isn't too disjointed but I felt like we needed a change of tone and pace._**

Annie woke suddenly, gasping and panting. She automatically reached out into the space beside her in the bed, searching for him. She drew in a deep breath and steadied herself as she felt his warm solid form beside her. He was safe. It was over.

She lay down on her side facing his back and stroked his hair gently, careful not to wake him. She breathed his scent. She listened to his breathing. She traced the outlines of bruises, careful not to touch the darkened skin. He'd never know she'd left the light on in the bathroom so that the apartment wasn't totally dark. For once she was almost grateful he couldn't sleep.

Auggie should be the one having nightmares. He'd been captured. Beaten. Watched his brother beaten even worse. But tonight he was still, the exhaustion had taken him off into a deep sleep when their gentle lovemaking had concluded. She'd curled next to him and watched him sleep before drifting off herself.

Luke was spending the night in hospital, for his mental health as much as his physical. He was an Anderson, and he was tough, but it was a lot to process.

"I'm so sorry," Auggie had repeated over and over again, grasping his brother's hands in his.

Luke had struggled for words, he wanted to tell his brother he wasn't angry, that he was in awe of him, that he was grateful they were safe, just to grateful to be safe, but all that came out as "Its okay," and he pulled him in for a hug. Annie was relieved for both of them, she'd imagined Luke's reaction would be like Danielle's but everything that had happened had been far away from Luke's day to day life and that make it all the more surreal. Annie doubted he'd be in a hurry to come to DC for work anytime soon, but she hoped the experience might actually bring the brothers closer rather than pushing them apart.

A 12 hour day had turned into a 24 hour one as Annie and Auggie had sat outside Joan's hospital room waiting to hear the news that she was okay. Arthur had tried to sending them home but they hadn't left until they knew she was stable. Arthur had been beyond mad to hear about his wife's escapades, angrier still when he heard that an agency insider was involved, he was already tearing apart Langely via telephone from his wife's beside.

Only one of the men in the warehouse had survived to provide information and Annie feared they might never get to the bottom of it. She had shot the last guard herself as she led her injured party to freedom. There had been that horrible crystal moment when she realised he had a gun and he wasn't going to lower it and with Joan already bleeding behind her and running out of time she hadn't hesitated. Part of her wished she had, part of her worried that every death at her hands took her further away from the person she was, but she clung to the knowledge that when she could avoid taking life without endangering others she did.

Outside the warehouse as they'd waited for the backup they finally dared risk call for, and an ambulance, Joan had set Eyal on his way, it was easier if she didn't have to explain his involvement.

"Thankyou doesn't really cut it," Annie had said by way of farewell, the corner of her tense lip perking into a half-smile. Her hands were pressed against Joan's wound. She didn't dare move from her position crouched over the older agent.

"Anytime neshama. Buy me a drink next time I'm in town and we'll call it even."

"Take care of yourself," Auggie ordered good naturedly. "It seems like we owe you one, again."

"Annie and I have made it a bit of a habit of saving each other, hopefully we can extend that courtesy," Eyal suggested.

"You haven't ever thought of coming to work for the agency have you?"

"I couldn't, too many Americans," Eyal teased, "Nut I meant what I told Annie before about goodbye's, I'm sure we'll see each other again," and as the sirens had neared he'd walked away from them, his hand on his phone ordering a cab.

Unable to sleep Annie got out of the bed and went out into the living area to telephone the hospital for a status update on Joan. It was all good news. She was still stable, vitals were improving. Annie asked after Luke as well and was told he was resting peacefully. It felt odd that the people she had worried about all seemed so fine and she still felt sick thinking about what had happened. It was Simon, she knew it was Simon, the recentness of his loss, the fear of going through that again, the knowledge that if it was Auggie it would be worse.

Annie found a bottle of wine and poured herself a glass and curled up with ipod on the lounge, her eyes on the door, as if she was sitting guard, protecting Auggie. Making sure no other monsters came to get him.

She wasn't really aware how long she had been sitting there, she'd began to drift off with the music, half asleep, half away, when she was jerked to attention but his hand on her shoulder. He'd startled her and he felt it, "Shhh," he soothed in a low tone, patting her shoulder, then feeling his way around the sofa so he could sit next to her. "Were you sleeping out here? I didn't mean to wake you."

"I was listening to music, I must have dozed off."

"Couldn't sleep huh?" Auggie asked, pulling her legs onto his lap so he could rub them while they talked. She'd gotten cold in her sleep.

"I didn't want to wake you," she responded, echoing his earlier sentiment.

"You're worth losing a little sleep over," he smiled reaching for her face and cupping her cheek. "I missed you. I wasn't gone that long but I really missed you. I hated knowing you'd be worried and I wouldn't be there to help."

"I missed you too… I… I was worried…. Even with the messages from Pillar," Annie admitted, fighting hard not to cry. "Joan and Eyal were great, Pillar too, but it felt like… it feels like it's been weeks not days."

"I know the feeling. Listen we need some time, if we go straight back to work they'll have us tied up psych evals for weeks anyway, how about tomorrow when they're done interviewing us we take the corvette and just get out of here. Out of the city, away from all of this."

"We couldn't, Joan's sick."

"Joan has Arthur, we'll take our phones, we'll check in."

"I just moved in. I haven't even unpacked."

"It can wait. Annie the last time I was kidnapped – and boy do I wish that wasn't an expression I could use – I was engaged by the time I got home so I'm not going to pull out a ring but I want to be with you for a very long time and I think we could both do with a little time away. I want you to feel safe."

Annie nodded. "Can we just stay here then?"

"What do you mean?"

"Can we just stay home and wear our PJs and not get out of bed until noon? I don't need to go anywhere fancy and frankly a cabin in the woods sounds like something out of a horror movie right now. I just want to be at home with you. Is that really stupid?"

"It's not like I can appreciate a room with a view anyway," Auggie teased. "If my princess wants take out and pjs than that's what she'll get. Your wish is my command Agent Walker."

"I could get used to that."

"Pizza and pjs?"

"No silly, you doing whatever I ask."

"And how would that be any different to the past two years?" Auggie teased with a raised eyebrow.

Annie hit him with a lounge cushion and they both laughed. "I'm not that bad."

"You got Joan to head up a secret rescue mission. You had a former Mossad agent volunteer his time to help. Has it ever occurred to you that you're very hard to say no too?"

Annie gave Auggie a long look. An idea played across her mind. A question, the question, the one he was supposed to ask, and probably would one day, but it was too early to ask, she wasn't going to repeat the mistakes he'd made with Parker. Still, for a fleeting moment Annie wondered what he'd say if she asked. It was nice imagining what that might be like. One day.

"You still there?" Auggie asked quizzically."

"Sure," Annie smiled. "I'm good."

"I'd ask you to go back to bed but I was having trouble sleeping myself, want to put the TV on and pretend we're watching so we have an excuse to fall asleep out here?"

"Sounds perfect," Annie smiled agreeably, so they did just that, they flicked on some inane late night movie and she snuggled into his lap and he lent against her and stroked her hair. At first they passed a few comments back and forth about the ridiculous movie but the gaps in the conversation grew longer as they both started to drift off, relaxing into each other, the torments of their conscious thoughts taken away by the predictable plot line and the mutual comfort they took in each others presence. They'd both be uncomfortable in the morning, but it was worth it to get a few extra hours of sleep that wasn't disturbed by nightmares.

**A/N: Corny I know, but they needed a little bliss.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Loosening Up**

Annie snuggled against Auggie, her eyelids pressed against the soft cotton of his t-shirt, and smiled with contentment. He was here and he was hers.

But as blissful as her heart felt her body had other ideas. Her neck ached and the more she thought about the crick in her neck the more she noticed other aches and pains in other parts of her body, there was a bruise on her thigh, her calves were tied up in knots, her shoulder were tight. Damn it. She had to move. It felt wrong to break the magic of their sofa sleepover but it had to be done.

She slid gently off him and moved a few paces from the sofa. She arched her back and reached as high as she could. She rolled her neck. She did some yoga stretches. Still she felt stiff. She had told Auggie she'd stay in her PJs but she wanted a hot shower to loosen up her muscles. She realised she wasn't breaking any rules if she got back into her PJs after a hot shower.

When Auggie woke he noticed her absence first and the sound of running water second. In some ways it was harder to sneak around when your cohabitant was blind that with a sighted person who tended to just focus on what was straight in front of them. Auggie smirked to himself and fumbled a little as he got to his feet and banged into the coffee table. He would show her what happened when she broke his rules. Ignoring the bruise he'd have on his leg his pulled his t-shirt off transferred it to his left hand while he opened the bathroom door with his right. The t-shirt found the hamper silently as Auggie slipped inside.

"Strange place to be wearing pajamas agent Walker," Auggie teased as a few more items of clothing found their way into the hamper.

"Sorry I caved; I needed to loosen up a few muscles," Annie explained.

"Hmm, well maybe I can help with that," Auggie offered grinning and joined her under the hot water.

Outside their phones buzzed, unfortunately in Joan's absence they would be needed at work and their day of leisure would be cut all too short but with the water pounding over them, just slightly too hot for comfort, and their attention devoted solely to each other, for once Auggie's "super-senses" didn't register the background noise.

A/N: Sorry just a snippet of fluff, just to say thank you to all the followers and reviewers and sorry for the lack of updates! Maybe this will get me thinking about this series again.


	21. Chapter 21

**Hunting**

"Annie, Annie," a sing song voice whispered in her ear. "It's time to wake up."

Annie grumbled, swatted away at the evil creature that dared disturb her slumber and attempted to roll over. Auggie was caught off guard and Annie's hand collided with his right eye. Auggie's groan somehow penetrated Annie's consciousness and her eyes flew open. "Sorry!" she winced. "I didn't mean that."

"It's okay. I just wanted to say, Happy Easter, surprise."

"Surprise?"

"Oh I hid your eggs. At least I think I did, hard to know when you can't see what you're doing, it may be more of a case of scattered in plain sight. There are 12 though; I counted because I figured I wouldn't be able to remember where I put them."

"Oh Auggie that's so sweet. Happy Easter, I'm sorry I didn't really expect anything because there's no kids around, and we have to work later," Annie trailed off, a little wistfully.

"Missing your nieces?" Auggie asked sympathetically.

Annie nodded, "I'm really excited to spend the day with you but it's just not Easter without kids and the Easter bunny."

"I get it, it's okay to miss them," Auggie reassured her, taking her hand in his and patting it gently before he lightened his tone, "But you have an Easter egg hunt to go on. No coffee until you find those eggs!"

Annie gave in and smiled. She was in her PJs and she had chocolate eggs to find, that was pretty darn cute. "Okay and thank you, I'd say I'm sorry I didn't do something for you but…"

"An easter egg hunt with a blind guy just seems kind of cruel?"

"Well."

"Hey you know I can take a joke. Go. Find your eggs. You won't get any help from me."

Annie nodded and climbed out of bed gently, making the effort to look under the bed for eggs while she got her slippers. The bedside table was clear so she continued her hunt, being careful to look inside things and behind things. She was having no luck at all and beginning to feel a bit ridiculous, she was a trained covert operative after all – this should be easy! Finally she found her first treasure, nestled in the pocket of her dressing gown which was hanging up because she hadn't needed it.

"Go one," she declared triumphantly, a little too excited. Auggie was thrilled, she sounded like a kid on Christmas morning, which was exactly what he'd been going for.

"Good to hear Agent Walker, I was beginning to worry they made a mistake about your field rating."

"Ha ha," Annie smirked but she was secretly very glad to see the grin on Auggie's face. This was what holidays with loved ones were meant to be like, silly and fun and happy and memorable. A part of herself that she normally kept pushed to the bank of her mind imagined what it would be like to share her hunt with a child of their own, but that just made her miss her nieces even more and her and Auggie weren't ready for that sort of talk just yet.

Slowly Annie discovered the eggs scattered around the living room, and all in all she had to admit that Auggie had done a pretty good job. She was impressed and touched knowing how much effort it would have taken to find the nooks and crevices behind nick knacks and photo frames, especially as the later were mostly additions Annie had made to the apartment. At first she'd felt it was unfair putting up photos when he couldn't see them but when she'd moved in Auggie had pushed the issue, reminding her that he didn't want her giving anything up because of his disability, when it became her home it became a sighted person's home as well as an unsighted one so the photos went up, and with her permission he attached braille labels to the back (he'd joked this was so he'd know if she had any pictures of ex-boyfriends up he didn't know about).

Methodically Annie moved her search onto the kitchen when there were only four eggs left and she could no longer imagine any hiding place left unsearched in the living area. While the search has been fun the proximity of hot coffee was becoming torturous when Annie discovered the last three eggs were hidden in the one spot- they were sitting nestled inside an unused breakfast bowl with an envelope on top. "Yea, I'm finished, I get to have coffee!" Annie cheered as she collected the final three eggs. "Hey what's this Aug?" she asked, referring to the envelope which she realized he must have put there purposefully.

"I don't know, what's what?" Auggie returned mysteriously.

"There's an envelope too, is this a card?"

Auggie shrugged noncommittally, "Guess you'll have to open it."

Annie did and discovered two domestic tickets to California.

"Auggie!" Annie exclaimed. "You shouldn't have, Joan's expecting us at work and it's just too much."

"I've taken care of Joan, the only one expecting us is Danielle, if that's okay with you?"

"Okay, that's amazing. But isn't that a lot of money for a weekend?" Annie noted they were return tickets, their stay in California would be a short one.

"I got a good deal and mostly used points. Don't worry about the money, I know you miss Danielle and the kids and at least one of us needs to fly home this Easter."

"You're not sad it's not you?" Annie asked, worried Auggie was covering up his own homesickness and putting her own needs first.

Auggie shook his head, "There will be other holidays to catch up with the Andersons, but I'd love to tag along with you this time, if that's okay?" There was a note of uncertainty in his voice.

"You're more than welcome," Annie reassured hugging him and giving him a kiss. "Thank you so much for the best Easter ever, I'm sorry I didn't get you anything special."

"I think this is all the special I need Walker,"Auggie returned heartily, he knew he sounded like a cheesy goofball but darn it that woman made him so happy he didn't care if he sounded like a love struck idiot every now and again, when they were alone anyway, at work he had a reputation to uphold.

**A/N: Happy Easter/Passover/Holidays to anyone celebrating his weekend (even if you're just** **celebrating a weekend off work).**


	22. Blind Man's Bluff

**Blind Man's Bluff**

**_A/N: I hope everyone had a great Easter but this chapter won't focus on Annie and Auggie's visit to California, something else came to mind. _**

A slightly too hot shower was just what August Anderson need to loosen his stiff shoulders and wash away the day. He could never fathom how sitting at a computer could leave him feeling dirty but it did and he was relieved to feel refreshed. So relieved that he wasn't in a hurry to get dressed so he slung a towel around his trim waist and padded out into the living area. "I was just wondering if it was worth getting dressed or if it would be more efficient to stay as I am," Auggie suggested with a grin.

Annie's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she looked across from Auggie's small kitchenette where she was chopping vegetables while talking on the phone. It was true that her her boyfriend looked pretty darn impressive, but her bigger concern was the realisation that her mother was still on speaker phone and she now had a lot of explaining to do.

"Sorry Mom. Ah Aug, on the phone," Annie explained looking a little pained, though neither of her loved ones would ever see her expression.

"Whoever it is they can wait, dinner can wait, I'm only hungry for you," Auggie teased, approaching her as he zeroed in on her voice.

"Speaker phone. My Mom's on speaker phone," Annie elaborated.

Understanding dawned on Auggie. "Oh, hello Mrs Walker," Auggie greeted smoothly; with a false confidence that concealed his embarrassment. "How are you?"

"Fine thank you," a female voice, wavering slightly, returned. "You kids have a good night. I'd better finish cooking dinner. Goodnight, lovely to hear from you Annie."

"Love you, bye," Annie returned quickly, just before her Mom could hang up. Annie burst out laughing. "I don't think I've ever heard her in such a rush to get off the phone."

"It could have been worse," Auggie reasoned. "I could have described what I wanted to do to you," he whispered in a low voice as he slid up behind her and leaning against her. Annie put down the knife, unable to focus. Vegetables were overrated. Cooking was highly overrated.

"And what would that be?" Annie managed to ask before turning in his embrace so she could face him.


End file.
